Toulouse missed an opportunity to lift themselves off the bottom of the Super League table as they lost to an injury hit Leeds team at Headingley.
Sylvain Houles’ side lost 25-14 to the Rhinos but battled hard at Headingley playing their third game in just over a week.
After the match a disappointed Houles explained why he felt his side lost tonight: “It was around the ruck. They came at us around the ruck and we didn’t control it well enough. Our markers were quite poor I thought. You can’t concede tries like that around the ruck. They got us three times.”
A big fixture, Houles didn’t believe it was season defining and believed it was more important for Leeds than his team: “It was an important game but probably more for them, they were at home.
“We believe in ourselves and came here to win. There’s plenty of games to play and plenty of home games for us and they’re the most important I believe.”
Just before kick-off, Toulouse lost talisman Chris Hankinson to injury. Houles explained how big of a blow this was and bemoaned the fact the game was played on a Friday: “He [Chris Hankinson] plays three games in eight games. It’s one of those things. I don’t understand why we played on Friday. It’s already tough enough and it wasn’t a Sky game. I don’t understand why we didn’t play on Sunday.”
Toulouse are set to receive reinforcements following this injury with new signing Corey Norman expected to arrive in France this Thursday. Houles revealed when he’s likely to debut: “He won’t be ready to play straight away. He’s quite fit. We’ll look after him for three weeks. We play next week and then we get a week off and then it’s Wakefield at home so we’ll see.”
